A new sketch by Harold Pinter is due to get its world première at the Royal National Theatre in London on Friday.

The playwright, who is receiving treatment for cancer, will be acting in the sketch, called The Press Conference.

The piece is one of five the National is staging in the first of two evenings devoted to Pinter's
sketches.

The Press Conference will also be among the five sketches staged on Monday, the second evening.

Pinter will première the new piece after a cast including Corin Redgrave, Patrick Marber and Frances de la Tour has performed in That's Your Trouble, The Black and White, Tess and Trouble in the Works.

Corin Redgrave will appear alongside Pinter at the National

Penelope Wilton's performance of Tess will also be a first.

The piece has been published, but has never been performed before.

The second evening showcases the sketches Last To Go, Special Offer, That's All and Night alongside The Press Conference.

Both evenings are fully booked.

Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land is currently playing in the National's Lyttelton theatre under his own direction.

His Monologue was performed by Henry Woolf in the Cottesloe theatre, also at the National, five times last month.

Earlier this month, it emerged that the 71-year-old dramatist was undergoing a course of chemotherapy for cancer of the oesophagus.